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Rebirth, Chapter Three- Vortus
Death is forever. Life is temporary. But who says that the Dead may not walk...? Suva Mata "No!" screamed H'kija, making a lunge for the Ignika Mata Nui being. Raising it's sword, the being knocked the Toa out of the air and onto the ground. Barely paying any attention to anything but the task at hand of returning the temple to the ground, the entity withstood several attempts at halting it's progress, including freezing it in a block of ice, trying to burn it alive, and trying to cleave it's head from it's shoulders, all of which ended miserably. Finished with it's job of destroying the temple, the entity spoke in a booming, metallic voice, "Surroundings cleared. Reverting to consciousness of Ignika Mata Nui." The entity collapsed to the floor, and lay in a lifeless heap. "What now?" asked Sarda, "Is it dead?" Cautiously, H'kija walked towards the fallen Great Spirit, and flipped it over, to see it's heartlight glowing weakly. "Not quite," answered the Toa of Wisdom, "I've seen this once before, when Turaga Gali... We need to get him to Ga-Koro." Nuva Ga-Koro "Hahli! Nokama!" cried Idris, knowing the protectors of her village would come to aid one of their kin. Toa Hahli glided down from her perch on the village's watchtower to greet the new Toa. "Idris?" asked Hahli, confused, "Is that you?" "Yes, it's me," answered Idris, carrying the unconscious entity in her oversized hands, "this guy needs help, and not 'cause he's a whackjob." "Okay," answered the old Toa of Water, "but who are all of these people?" "No time to explain," replied Idris, "just take us to Hewkii, we might need some soup." Hewkii's Tent "Be glad I have some leftover soup from Lesovikk," said the disgruntled Toa Hewkii, "otherwise you would be out of luck. We need to get more supplies, and soon." Nuva Ga-Koro was now home to a dying Mata Nui, being healed by the island's best medic, Hewkii, in his home. "What happened to this guy, anyways?" asked the Toa of Stone. "Well, aside from almost having his head chopped off," answered H'kija, "he's probably suffering from being reconstructed from protosteel, immense discharge of elemental energy, and being in a coma for a couple hundred years. Why?" "Well, aside from needing a good meal," replied Hewkii, "this guy seems perfectly fine, just a little drained." "Seriously?" complained Melsus Kor, "we ran from the center of Tektra to find out that he was hungry and needed a nap? By the Great Beings..." "So," continued Hewkii, pouring soup into Mata Nui's open Mouth, "who are you guys, anyway?" "I was wondering the same thing," said Hahli, arms crossed, "do tell." "I'm Centapik," said the Toa, "this is Melsus, Kazi, Sarda, Idris, and H'kija. As far as we can tell, naptime over there is Mata Nui." Hewkii's jaw dropped, and accidentally poured the rest of the soup down Mata Nui's throat. "You mean?... this is?..." stuttered Hahli. "Yep." answered Sarda, "Soup-spill here is the one and only great spirit." Hewkii fell to the floor, tearing a Toa-shaped hole in the leaf-built hut. "Need me to go get him?" asked Idris. "I think he'll be fine," asnwered Hahli, staring into the hole, "after all, he did spent almost a year at the bottom of the ocean." "Ungh..." groaned Mata Nui, only half awake. "Hello, there," said H'kija, bent on one knee, so as to talk to Mata Nui face to face, "how're you doing?" "Weak..." groaned Mata Nui, "need... something..." "Food?" asked the Toa of Wisdom. "Yes..." replied the half-asleep Great Spirit, "food... hunger... need food..." "Anyone got anything this guy could eat?" H'kija asked the others. "Well, I don't have anything on me," replied Idris, "but there's some fish in my hut I was saving for later, want me to go grab it?" "That'd be great," answered H'kija, now standing up. Idris left the hut, and ever so carefully, traversed the leaf bridges to her hut. She reached her hut, and opened her food chest. In it, what she found was not the fish meat she had left there, but rather a writhing piece of black and red flesh. "What the..." whispered the Toa, confused. Before her very eyes, the dead heap of meat began to re-form, and pieces of flesh began to harden into armor, creating a demonic looking fish creature. "Impossible..." the Toa stared at this monstrosity as it lifted its minuscule fins to climb out of the chest. Like any fish out of water would, this thing ''fell onto the floor and began to twitch it's fins, almost as if trying to swim. Idris ran out of her hut, to find the majority of her village running in fear from similar fish-creatures. The docks were the worst for this. Tektra's best fishermen and fisherwomen had come back from a good, long fishing trip out to sea, where fish were most plentiful. Because of this, these demon fish, or whatever they were, were crawling everywhere, frightening the living daylights out of any Matoran who dared pass by. Idris needed to tell the other Toa. She ran as fast as her massive legs could go, and when she had arrived at the tent, she found the others encircling Mata Nui, keeping the unusually strong demon fish at bay. "Idris!" shouted Sarda, "Are we glad to see you! Would you mind beating these little buggers here into a fine fish-paste? That'd be great!" "You got it!" Idris threw her axe at on of the fish, slicing it in two, as well as creating a decent tear in the base of the hut. "Sorry!" shouted Idris. She continued to grab handfuls of these fish, which for her was about ten to twelve fish at a time, and crushed them to where they were about the size of a small stone. She continued this until all of the fish where gone from the hut. "What's with those things?" asked Kazi, eyes wide from shock. "Death Rahi..." muttered Mata Nui, "weak to life energy... mask... must use... MASK!" Mata Nui sat up straight, and his mask shone with a brilliant white light, sending waves of life energy through the village, taking out any undead fish left in the village. "By the Great Beings..." said H'kija, eyes wide. Mata Nui stood up, and turned to face the Toa. "Where am I?" asked the Great Spirit, "The last thing I remember was healing Spherus Magna..." "Well, it worked." said Centapik, giving Mata Nui his hand, "I'm Centapik, Toa of what is presumably Fire. Maybe something else. Haven't had much time to check, what with you destroying the Suva, and all." "I did what?" asked Mata Nui, a look of surprise on his face. "Wow, what, really?" asked Sarda, confused, "So you don't remember clearing out a decent expanse of land with your axe, and then becoming uncon- oh, right, you were unconscious..." "What were those things?" H'kija asked Mata Nui. "I'm not sure," answered the Great Spirit, "only that they're death creatures..." "Death creatures?" wondered Kazi. "Literally the walking dead," replied Mata Nui, "or in the case of these fish, the flapping dead." "Weird..." said H'kija, "Never heard of Death being an element, or a power. Is it one of those?" "Partially," answered Mata Nui, "It's a legendary power, not sure I know how I know that. I have a vague memory of learning all of the elements and powers, but like I said, it's distant, almost like a dream." "At any rate," said H'kija, "we need to warn the other villages about these... whatever they are. Each of you need to get to the other villages and tell them to watch anything that died recently. Sarda, you go to Ta-Koro, Idris, I want you in Le-Koro, Melsus to Ko-Koro, and Kazi, you're not gonna like this, but I need you in Po-Koro." "Why?" asked Kazi. "The Po-Matoran really like their statues," answered H'kija, "if anything cracks or gets damaged, they're gonna want something to keep it safe. You're ice powers will be perfect for that." "What about you and me?" asked Centapik, "Where're we going?" "You know what Onu-Koro's like," replied H'kija, readying his spear, "if the dead really are coming back, they're gonna need all the help they can get. Mata Nui, we're gonna need you there, too. A mask like yours is gonna come in handy against the things they have in the archives. Nuva Onu-Koro When H'kija arrived at the entrance to the caverns, he was greeted by all sorts of undead Rahi, and Matoran running for their lives. H'kija stuck out his arm, and stopped a visiting Le-Matoran. "What's going on here?" H'kija asked the Matoran. "They're not dead, that's what's happening!" replied the Le-Matoran, "Jaga-bugs are free, Muaka are killing the Mahi, and those Mahi are killing whatever they can harm-touch! By the also-way, who are you?" "Not important," replied Centapik, "where's the crypt cavern, do you know?" "It's just to the left-west of the main cavern," answered the Le-Matoran, "why?' "Once again, not important." answered H'kija, "C'mon, we need to find someone special..." Gali's Tomb The Toa had arrived at the crypt. After having close encounters with zombie Manas Crabs, they were glad to be amongst things that were ''actually dead. "So why are the the things in here not coming back?" H'kija asked. "My guess would be that these things have had a good long time to decay," answered Mata Nui, resting his hands on his sword, "but it's only a guess. What is your name?" He pointed at H'kija. "H'kija," answered the Toa, "why?" "So I have something to call you by, other than Toa of Wisdom," replied Mata Nui, cracking a smile. "So why are we here, again?" Centapik asked. "Turaga Gali," answered H'kija, "that's why. As her last request, she wanted to be buried in Onu-Koro, so she could be closer to the past. I was there when she died, and as much as I want her back, I don't want her back like this." At that very moment, Gali's tomb, directly across from where they where standing, broke into a good hundred shards of petrodermis, the strongest stone known to Onu-Matoran, and revealed a fully-formed Toa Gali Nuva. "Impossible..." muttered H'kija. "Well, in case you haven't noticed," said Centapik, "impossible is kind of ordinary around here, now." A black and red Toa Gali stepped out from her tomb, wielding two large, protosteel-looking axes. She opened her mouth, and let out a painful screech, a screech so powerful even Mata Nui keeled back in pain. "VORTUS!" cried Gali, rearing her head, "VORTUS MATA NUI! VORTUS MATA NUI SHALL RETURN THIS DAY!" The undead Toa of Water threw her axe at H'kija, and knocked the Toa over, embedding the both axe and Toa into the wall. H'kija struggled to get free of the axe, but remained pinned to the wall. Gali then proceeded to throw her second axe, and hit Centapik in the knee, causing him to collapse in pain. The undead Toa of Water continued to walk over Mata Nui's limp body, and out of the crypt. "H'kija..." wheezed Mata Nui, "Your mask... It's a Pakari..." Synapses fired, and H'kija felt a powerful realisation of the fact, that for the first time in forever, he could finally use his mask of strength as it was supposed to be used. He felt his mask glow with a powerful fury, and make his limbs stronger than ever. He grabbed the hilt of the axe, and pried it free of the wall, subsequently causing the Toa to fall off, as well. H'kija scrambled to his feet, picked up his shield and spear, and ran out of the crypt into the main cavern. Petor Nui "GALI!" shouted H'kija, "What are you doing?" The Petor Nui, or Great Cave, had been turned into a massive, donut-shaped pool, with a tiny island in the center, held up by a thin stone cord. "VORTUS SHALL AWAKEN!" screeched Gali from her pedestal, "TODAY, VORTUS RISES AGAIN!" "Who is Vortus?" asked H'kija, "What is Vortus?" "VORTUS IS OUR SAVIOUR!" screamed Toa Gali, "VORTUS IS THE DEATH MASTER!" It was then that H'kija's powers of wisdom began to awaken. Vortus was the Old Matoran word for death. H'kija remembered what gali had said earlier: Vortus Mata Nui. The Great Spirit of Death. But how? There was only one Great Spirit, and he was lying unconscious in the tomb. Except... whatever had posessed his Mata Nui, had said it was "Reverting to consciousness of Ignika Mata Nui"... Ignika Mata Nui... The Great Spirit of Life... Could it be? Could there be more than one Great Spirit? While H'kija was thinking, Gali was forcing the water to decay the bottom of the cave at an unnatural rate. The water began to reveal a great, red protodermis seal. Once covered by the levels of stone, this seal was almost the previous size of the Great Cavern. H'kija, no longer pondering the thoughts of Great Spirits, stared down into the watery pit Gali had created. "What is that?" H'kija wondered aloud. "VORTUS!" answered Gali, voice beginning to decay as she reached the end of her usefulness, "THAT IS THE PRISON OF THE VORTUS MATA NUI! OUR MASTER AND SAVIOUR!" Gali drained the pit, and leaped down to greet the half unveiled creature. She began to claw at the prison, digging into the protodermis. "What are you doing?!" shouted H'kija. Gali didn't reply. The Bielle Toa lept into the pit, jumping in turn against the pit wall and the Seal in turn. "GALI!" shouted H'kija, "You don't have to do this!" "ThIs Is mY PurPoSE!" cried Gali, decayed to the point where her voice was barely audible, "ThIS is MY DESTINY!" Gali swung at the Toa, knocking his mask off. She swung at him again, knocking him unconscious. She grabbed the Toa by the wrist, and pressed his hand against the seal. Awakened by the searing pain, H'kija screamed, until he fell unconscious once again. Gali had used the Toa's elemental powers, specifically his Wisdom powers, to shatter the seal. The crystalline protodermis began to shatter, and fall off, and one piece landed on top of Gali and H'kija. H'kija forced his way out from under the piece of protodermis he had been trapped under, and gazed upon the changing form of Vortus Mata Nui- the great spirit of death. Constantly changing shape, the only thing that stayed the same was it's mask: a silver, skull-like Kanohi, with a great gaping mouth, and brilliant red eyes. The being began to form, starting with the torso. A skeletal, red and black being began to form, with thin, spindly limbs, the only exception being it's right arm, which was a powerful, muscular-looking arm, ending in a hand that looked more like a series of daggers attached to a palm than a hand. The being, finally fully formed, began to speak. "Where am I?" it spoke, "more importantly, where is my staff?" The entity began to crawl on it's hands and knees, searching for it's weapon. H'kija watched in fear as the being picked up some sort of hilt, ending in a painful dagger. The entity reached for piece of protodermis, and held it up to the hilt, and it fashioned itself into a cruel blade, glowing red with lethal power. "There we go," said the being in satisfaction, "all better!" It turned it's head, and saw H'kija. "Who are you?" wondered the entity, "Meh, doesn't matter. You're going to join my army, anyway." The being raised it's sword, and lowered it to kill H'kija... TO BE CONTINUED Category:Stories